Readers Guide: Thomas Benigno’s ‘The Good Lawyer’ at Library

Postcard perfect Pagford in the north of England is a microcosm of modern cultural turmoil. It is a lovely town full of factions — the rich hate the poor, the Anglos hate the Indians, and visa versa.

by Susie Stooksbury/Special to The Oak Ridger

Postcard perfect Pagford in the north of England is a microcosm of modern cultural turmoil. It is a lovely town full of factions — the rich hate the poor, the Anglos hate the Indians, and visa versa. So, when Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly leaving open his seat on the parish council, it becomes the catalyst that pushes all of Pagford into barely contained civil war. J. K. Rowling leaves Harry Potter and Hogwarts far behind in her first novel for adults, “A Casual Vacancy.”

It has long been thought that popular American author Louisa May Alcott was strongly influenced by her father, the reformer and teacher Bronson Alcott. Yet Eve LaPlante believes the major influence in Louisa's life was her mother, Abigail May Alcott, a well-educated feminist who was forced to give up her ambitions in order to provide for her family. LaPlante presents newly found source material on this little known woman in her dual biography, “Marmee & Louisa: the Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Mother” (921.000).

And LaPlante lets Abigail speak for herself in a collection of letters and journal entries she uncovered in her research for Marmee & Louisa. The writings that make up “My Heart is Boundless” (921.000) reveal a highly intelligent woman fully engaged in the social issues of her time yet committed to making the best of a difficult and ultimately disappointing marriage.

After surviving Death Benefit, Robin Cook's 2011 blockbuster, beautiful medical student Pia Grazdani decides to put aside her studies to take a job at Nano LLC, a huge lab in Colorado working on the cutting edge of nanotechnology. They have developed tiny bots capable of cleaning up viruses within the human body but their work is very hush-hush. In fact, Pia is warned to stay away from other experimental work in the facility and to not question where the funds supporting her own work come from. Of course, she doesn't listen and soon gets into a lot of trouble. “Nano” is Cook's latest.

One of the great issues of modern times is the seeming incompatibility between science and religion. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, though, prefers to see them as complementary: “Science takes things apart to see how they work … Religion puts things together to see what they mean …” He makes a compelling case for “The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning” (215.000).

As an attorney with the New York City Legal Aid Society, Nick Mannino is hoping to take on the case of a school aide who is accused of kidnapping and molesting three boys. He truly believes Guevara is innocent and begins to lay out a rock solid defense. But his second case isn't so easy — he is asked as a favor to defend a man accused in a series of brutal rapes. It soon becomes disturbingly clear, though, that both of Nick's cases are somehow linked. Thomas Benigno makes his promising fiction debut with “The Good Lawyer.”

Other new titles:

Fiction — “The Elephant Keeper's Children,” by Peter Hoeg'

“A Winter Dream,” by Richard Paul Evans;

“Merry Christmas, Alex Cross,” by James Patterson;

“The Forgotten,” by David Baldacci.

Non-fiction — “The Patriarch: the Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy” (921.000), by David Nasaw;

“Super Brain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-Being” (613.000), by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi.